I found this to be a decent read, figured Id give those at work something to stall time with.
Canadian deployment to Haiti begins as troops head out from N.B. and Ontario
FREDERICTON (CP) - Kristy Reimers says she‘ll never get used to saying goodbye to her husband when he is deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces to world troublespots like Haiti.
"I‘m a little nervous and worried," Reimers said as she waited at the Fredericton airport on Friday for the first major departure of Canadian military personnel to Haiti. "But people have been very good about reassuring me about the safety of this mission. I just don‘t like to be separated from my husband. He‘s my best friend."
Reimers husband, Sgt. Doug Loader, is an ammunition expert at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown and a member of an advance group of soldiers who left for Haiti on Friday to lay the groundwork for the full Canadian commitment beginning next week.
"We‘ll be back soon," Loader promised his wife as he left for what is expected to be a 90-day deployment.
Thirty-one soldiers from the sprawling training base in southern New Brunswick boarded two lumbering Hercules transport planes for the six-hour flight to the Caribbean troublespot where they will face civil unrest and sporadic violence.
"We‘re expecting the worst," said 23-year-old Pte. Trevor Arthur, a native of Ontario. "But we‘re going in there prepared and ready to follow the training we‘ve done."
There was an air of excitement at the Fredericton airport where steadily falling snow and chilly temperatures made the prospect of balmy Haiti, even with its problems, seem inviting.
But Maj. Dave Lambert, commander of the Royal Canadian Regiment rifle company, made it clear to the soldiers Haiti is no tourist spot.
"The country is a mess," said Lambert, who had just returned from a reconnaissance trip to the Haitian capital, Port au Prince.
"There are stacks of garbage and people wash their clothes in open sewers. This is a country that has suffered from poor government."
The advance party of 31 soldiers and four vehicles from Gagetown will join 45 military personnel from the Joint Operations Group in Kingston, Ont.
The two groups are part of a larger contingent of 450 military personnel that Canada has committed to a multinational effort to stabilize Haiti following a rebel uprising that forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to flee the country last month.
The group from Kingston includes engineers, signallers, supply and logistics personnel. They will be in Haiti for about 30 days setting up a Canadian camp.
Lambert said that altogether, including the 31 soldiers who left on Friday, 138 soldiers from Gagetown will be in Haiti for the 90-day deployment.
Lambert said the bulk of the force will head to Haiti on Wednesday.
He said the Canadian Forces will be working in Port au Prince with a U.S. Marine Corps battalion.
He said the situation on the city streets remains tense and dangerous. The main threats he said are from drive-by shooters and snipers.
"There is still a certain amount of danger there," he said.
"Life is returning to normal to a certain extent, but underneath that surface there is still unease and unsettlement."
Lambert said the role of the Canadians Forces will be to help ensure a secure environment for civil authorities to re-establish an orderly society.
He said the Gagetown troops will be patrolling, performing weapons searches, setting up roadblocks and gathering intelligence to understand how the situation is developing.
Lambert said that in some ways, the assignment to Haiti is less dangerous than Afghanistan, where many of the troops have already served tours of duty.
There are no land mines in Haiti, he said, and suicide bombing is not an issue.
"You know that although you might be sniped at from a distance, no one is going to run up to you with a bomb strapped to their body."
The Gagetown soldiers are part of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment. It is a mechanized infantry force that includes three rifle companies.
It is equipped with Canada‘s newest armoured personnel carriers and its troops have seen action in such hotspots as Bosnia, Africa and Afghanistan.
CHRIS MORRIS
http://www.hispeed.rogers.com/news/national/story.jsp?cid=n031217A